LIBRAKY 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION 







6—1132 



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AN J 

ADDRESS 

DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OF THE 

DIRECTORS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 

OF THE - 

SECOND MUNICIPALITY, 

OF 
On the 2%cl day of February, 184:3. 



~T 

BY THEODORE H. McCAIiEB, 

3Ju"0flt of tl)e 3l0istrict €:otitt of t|)c SEnitetr States, for Sloufsiana. 



PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE SECOND MUNICIPALITY. 



NEW-ORLEANS *. 
PRINTED AT THE TROPIC OFFICE, NO. 44 ST. CHARLES STREET, 



1843. 






RECORDER'S OFFICE, 

Second Municipality, 

New-Orlecms, March 2, 1843 



.1 



Dear Sir:— In accordance witli a resolution of the Council of 
Municipality No. Two, 1 have the honor to address you, and respect- 
fully solicit, on its behalf, a copy of your Address delivered on the 
22d February last, before the Public Schools, for publication. 
With sentiments of the highest respect, 
1 am, dear sir. 

Your obedient servant, 

J. BALDWIN, Recorder. 
Hon. T. H. McCaleb, Present'. 



March 3, 1843. 
Dear Sir: — I have received /our communication, soliciting- on 
behalf of the Council of the Second Municipality, a copy of the 
Address I had the honor to deliver at the request of the Directors of 
Public Schools of said Municipality, on the 22d ultimo. 

Although fully conscious how feebly the duty assigned to me was 
performed, I do not feel myself at liberty to decline a compliance wuth 
the request of the Council. 

I have the honor to be, sir, 

Most respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

THEO. H. McCALEB. 

Hon. Joshua Baldwin, 

Recorder of the Second Municipality of Neiv-Orhans, 






ADDHS3S. 



I feel constrained, fellow-citizens, to offer you an apolo- 
gy for the feeble and imperfect manner, in which the im- 
portant duty assigned to me by the Board of Directors of 
Public Schools of the Second Municipality, is about to 
be discharged. The subject which has convened us to- 
gether, called for far more study and reflection than I have 
been able, under the pressure of official occupations, to be- 
stow upon it. I have brought to the occasion little indeed 
beyond an ardent and anxious desire to witness the happy 
fulfilment of all our brilliant hopes, by the ultimate triumph 
of the great cause in which, as a community, we have em- 
barked under auspices the most grateful and encouraging. 

In selecting a suitable time for urging upon your indul- 
gent consideration the merits of that cause, we have felt that 
no day could be more auspicious than one held sacred and 
set apart in our annals for the celebration of our national 
Eleutheria. We have deemed it peculiarly fit and proper 
on such a day to bring before our high national altars the 
children of our country, and under the approving smiles of 
parental devotion, to dedicate them to the service of that 
country. We have thought that for this purpose, no day 
could be more appropriate than the birth-day of Washing- 
ton; and while joining in the customary manifestations of 
respect for his memory, we have felt that no topic could en- 
gage our attention more suitable to the occasion, than an 
enquiry into the means most efficient to promote the diffu- 
sion of that moral intelligence, upon which alone the noble 
institutions transmitted by our fathers for the enjoyment of 
their posterity can securely repose. 

If there be anything in the progress of intellectual im- 
provement in our country, tending above all other consid- 
erations to exalt the hopes and call forth the gratitude of 
the patriot and philanthropist, wc cannot as Louisianians 



4 

»- as Americans, contemplate with indifference the interest- 
ing scene which is passing before us. It cannot be denied, 
but by those whose hearts are insensible to the lofty and 
generous emotions which an occasion like this is ever cal- 
culated to inspire, that a new era has commenced in Louis- 
iana — that a most important revolution is about to be 
effected in her moral, intellectual and social condition. 

The consequences of that revolution, if all experience can 
be regarded as a satisfactory guide in the formation of an 
opinion, are speedily to be seen and felt in every depart- 
ment of public employment, and in all the relations of pri- 
vate life ; and it is truly gratifying to know that those who 
are more immediately engaged in effecting it, so far from 
permitting a doubt to mingle in the assurance they enter- 
tain of the final accomplishment of all its objects, are stim- 
ulated to a steady and unconquerable perseverance in the 
cause they have espoused, by the consciousness that it is the 
cause of religion, virtue and humanity. Many obstacles 
will doubtless intervene to impede their progress and post- 
pone for a time the realization of their fond dreams and 
ardent expectations. As in the political so in the moral 
world, no important revolution was ever effected without 
the exercise of courage, zeal and energy on the part of its 
champions ; and the benevolent gentlemen to whose merito- 
rious exertions in the cause of education in the Second 
Municipality of New-Orleans, we have this day the most 
cogent reasons for expressing our warmest gratitude, ex- 
pect not to escape the difficulties and trials which have ever 
beset the paths of their predecessors in undertakings of a 
like laudable character. They know that the clouds of 
prejudice must be dispelled; that inertness and indifference 
must be animated to a sense of moral responsibility ; that 
the throne of pride "high and lifted up," sustained by vul- 
gar arrogance on the one hand, and by supercilious ignor- 
ance on the other, must be demolished, and the whole 
cohort of petty jealousies which surround it, dispersed and 
exterminated. 

Much undoubtedly remains to be done, but enough has 
already been accomplished, to convince the most sceptical, 



that the system of public instruction adopted by the Second 
Municipality of New-Orleans, is really the only system 
which can adequately meet the wishes of those who advo- 
cate a wide and general dissemination of knowledge. It is 
a system, too, which the short experience of one year has 
convinced us, contains within itself the elements of success. 
It is now no longer regarded in the light of an experiment; 
and truly that it should ever have been so regarded, seems 
strange and unaccountable indeed to those of us, who have 
so often witnessed the blessings it has long and bountifully 
diffused over the northern section of our union. It is a 
system which has existed among our brethren of New-Eng- 
land for almost a century. It has grown with their growth, 
and strengthened with their strength. It has indeed been 
the primary cause of that growth and strength, and has be- 
come as essential to the moral, as the very air they breathe 
is to the physical existence of that great and happy people. 

Other northern and a portion of the western states have 
long since followed the bright example of New-England. 
In those states, however, constituting the middle and south- 
ern sections of the Union with perhaps one exception, the 
system has received no countenance or support. Many of 
their legislative bodies have, it is true, contributed munifi- 
cently to the establishment of colleges and academies, in 
which are taught the higher branches of education. But 
little or no interest has been felt or exhibited in the promo- 
tion of primary schools, and their establishment and main- 
tenance, have necessarily depended upon individual effort 
and private contribution. The advantages to be derived 
from such institutions are therefore circumscribed within 
narrow limits, and confined entirely to the children of pa- 
rents whose pecuniary circumstances are such as to enable 
them to bring the means of instruction to their own doors. 
Thus the children of indigent parents are excluded from a 
participation in a blessing which should be as free for their 
enjoyment as the very atmosphere that surrounds them, or 
the light that beams upon them from heaven. 

It becomes my pleasing duty then, to congratulate my 
fellow-citizens of the Second Municipality of New-Orleans 





0^ the important fact, which cannot fail to excite emotions 
of pride and pleasure in the minds of all who are not insen- 
sible to the influence of local attachments and local sympa- 
thies. It has fallen to your lot, fellow-citizens, to set an 
example to the whole southern section of our confederacy, 
by being the first to engage in this greatest of all moral 
enterprises — the establishment of a permanent system of 
primary instruction. The beauty, utility and moral gran- 
deur of this system, consist in the perfect equality with 
which it dispenses the means of education among the chil- 
dren of every class and condition. It disburses this inval- 
uable treasure with a liberality uncontrolled by all those 
contracted considerations which take into view the statio7i 
in life occupied by the parents of the innocent and immortal 
beings, who seek to become the recipients of its salutary 
and unalloyed bounty. It operates upon the principle of 
affording the greatest good to the greatest number, and 
with reference to that eternal and undeniable truth, that the 
cultivation of the mind should ever be regarded as an object 
of the first importance, as well in its effects upon individual 
as upon national character; for whether we consider it 
with reference to individuals or to nations, it must and will 
be acknowledged to be as vitally essential to the happiness 
of the one, as to the permanent prosperity and glory of the 
other. The system we advocate claims in a word as the 
ultimate consequence of its successful prosecution, the pro- 
motion of that great end of all free governments, for which 
the lives of patriotic statesmen have been spent in anxious 
toil, and about which the noisy and hypocritical demagogue 
is heard to thunder so loud and is known to care so little — 
equality of rights, privileges and enjoyments among all 
mankind. It is difficult indeed to imagine a system more 
catholic in its operations or more directly beneficial in its 
practical results in regulating the destinies of such a com- 
munity as the one in which our fortunes have been happily 
cast ; and it becomes our imperative duty to cherish and 
sustain it as the mightiest engine which human wisdom has 
ever devised for the eradication of vice and immorality, for 
the prevention of crime, and for the consequent elevation of 



our moral and inteliectuai character. These considera' 
tions, fellow-citizens, which are palpable to the perceptions 
of ever}^ rational beings have already secured for the system 
a degree of confidence and favor in the public mind^ which 
its strongest and most ardent advocates, could never have 
anticipated. To justify this confidence and favor, and to 
establish beyond all doubt or cavil, a preference for it over 
all other systems hitherto pursued, permit me to pay a pass- 
ing glance at the history of education as we find it under 
the different systems adopted by the legislature within the 
last twenty-five years, for the immediate benefit of the city 
of New-Orleans. 

On the 6th of March, 1819, an act was passed making 
appropriations for the support of the College of Orleans, a 
corporation which had been established some years before. 
By this act the regents of the University were authorised 
to raise ^a sum not exceeding twenty-five thousand dollars, 
by means of lotteries. An act approved February 16th, 
1821, entitled an act to extend and improve the system of 
public instruction in the state of Louisiana, abolished the 
bod}^ politic created by law under the title of the '' Regents 
of the University of Orleans," and provided for the forma- 
tion of a board of administrators in lieu thereof, to consist 
of nine persons residing in this city, who were to be annu- 
ally appointed by the Governor and Senate. Five of the 
persons composing the board were to form a quorum, and 
to exercise the same power, and to be subject to the same 
duties which had been conferred upon the regents of the 
University of Orleans, by the lav/s then existing in refer- 
ence to that institution. The first meeting of the Board 
was to be convened by the Governor of the State ; and the 
administrators, when assembled were to elect by ballot 
from among themselves, a president and vice president, who 
were to continue in office during the pleasure of the Board. 

The general powers vested in the board were to deter- 
mine the mode of education to be followed in the college — 
to alter the mode then established; to elect other profes- 
sors or, to confirm those then employed ; and the professors 
so appointed or confirmed, were to continue in office dur- 
ing the pleasure of fho administratv'^.rs. 



By the 11th section of the act, the sum of one thousand 
dollars in addition to the four thousand dollars appropriated 
under previous laws, was to be paid by the Treasurer of the 
State for the support of the College. 

Under the provisions of this law the college was admin- 
istered until the 18th of February, 1825, when another act 
was passed by the Legislature, entitled *'An act to incorpo- 
rate the College of Louisiana and for other purposes." 
By this law it was provided that the sum of five thousand 
dollars hitherto appropriated annually to the College of 
Orleans, should be appropriated for the establishment and 
maintenance of a college in the town of Jackson, in the pa- 
rish of East Feliciana, and that the proportion of monies 
arising from the licensing of gambling houses in the city of 
New-Orleans, which had been previously appropriated to 
the College of Orleans, together with the sum of three 
thousand dollars out of the proportion of the fund arising 
from said licenses, previously appropriated for the benefit 
of the Charity Hospital, should remain as an annual appro- 
priation for the support and maintenance of the College of 
Orleans, to be paid in the manner provided by laws then in 
being. 

Subsequently the legislature passed another act abolish- 
ing entirely the corporation of the College of Orleans, and 
establishing one central and two primary schools in the city 
and suburbs. These schools were to be conducted under 
the superintendance of ten regents^ who were constituted a 
body politic under the title of Regents of the Central and 
Primary Schools of New- Orleans, and in that capacity 
were to enjoy the right of perpetual succession, and all such 
other rights and privileges as were attached bylaw to other 
literary institutions of the state. To these regents was 
entrusted the power to prescribe the discipline to be ob- 
served in the schools, to* organize the plan of education, 
and to make all necessary rules for their faithful adminis- 
tration. By this \^vf ffty children chosen from among the 
poorer class, were to be admitted into each of the schools, 
free of charge, on their being presented to the director of 
the schools, either by their president or the mayor of the 



tity. None of the children to be admitted gratuitously, 
were to be under the age of seven, or above the age of four^ 
teen years. By the act of 1827, the numbei*of pupils enti-^ 
tied to gratuitous admittance into each of the schools, was 
not to exceed one hundred. 

We have here, fellow-citizens, briefly presented to our 
view the various systems adopted by the representatives of 
the people for the promotion of the cause of education 
among us for the last twenty-five years. It is unnecessary 
for us to go into a strict enquiry J;o ascertain the causes of 
the failure of those systems to meet the wishes of the legis^ 
lature. The fact of that failure may, however, be easily 
inferred from the instability of legislation as exhibited in 
the detail 1 have just given. And apart from our own per^ 
sonal knowledge and experience upon this subject, we think 
. we can discern in the systems themselves those radical de- 
fects which would necessarily bring about their own disso- 
lution. It is but justice to the legislature to remark, that 
it has at all times manifested a disposition to advance the 
interests of learning. It has on all occasions displayed a 
liberal and patriotic spirit. If its wishes and efforts have 
hitherto been disappointed, the disappointment will, we 
think, be found to have arisen from a mistaken policy. In 
regard to the College of Orleans, it may safely be affirmed 
that the act of locating it in a city such as this was at the 
time the institution existed, was in itself an injudicious 
proceeding. Youth is the season of temptation, and apart 
from the thousand inducements usually atTorded by large 
and populous cities to the student, to abandon the silent and 
secluded abode of learning, and to seek the haunts of vice 
and dissipation, it seems to me that those inducements were 
augmented in a ten fold degree by the very legislative en- 
actments to which the college was indebted for its existence. 
By the act of 1825, we find that the funds to be appropria- 
ted for its support, were to be derived not from the usual 
and legitimate sources of revenue, but from licenses on 
^amhling houses; — houses which from their number and 
the scenes of depravity they so often presented, diffused a 
moral blight and desolation oyer our now quiet and happy 



io 

city. It was to such scenes the wayward and inexperien- 
ced youth was liable to be attracted. Deprived of pa- 
rental care and solicitude, and forgetful of the monitory 
voice which had hitherto guided his innocent footsteps in 
the paths of virtue, he would soon become the unsuspect- 
ing victim of the machinations of the thousand midnight 
emissaries of these temples of iniquity. By them he would 
be led, like the lamb to the slaughter, to the presence of 
the high priest of infamy, ministering at his infernal shrine 
and evermore prepared with complacent smiles, amidst hel- 
lish orgies, to perform the unholy sacrifice. 

That public gambling houses should be permitted to ex- 
ist at all, would seem to be repugnant to all moral and reli- 
gious sentiment ; but that they should exist under the au- 
thority and with the encouragement of law^, is as anoma- 
lous as it is revolting. That good may sometimes arise 
from evil, I can reasonably imagine ; but that vice should 
be positively encouraged for the promotion of virtue, or 
that public immorality should be countenanced and favored 
by the authorities of government for the purpose of pro- 
moting a great moral end, are propositions as false in ethics 
as they are abominable in legislation. No parent feeling 
a due regard for the welfare of his child, would be inclined 
to release him from parental government, and send him for 
his education into a community, where the very worst of 
vices not only prevailed without check or control, but were 
absolutely protected and encouraged by the very legislative 
enactments which gave support to the institution, within 
whose walls he was expected not only to quaff at the foun- 
tain of learning, but to imbibe those pure and permanent 
principles of morality^ which were to regulate his conduct 
in after life. 

It may be safely affirmed, that the failure of the College 
of Orleans to meet the expectations of its projectors and 
patrons, was not attributable to the want of talent and learn- 
ing to sustain and direct it. The literary and scientific qua- 
lifications of its president and professors, were universally 
known and acknowledged. For the satisfaction of the pre- 
sent audience, it is only necessary to mention the name of 



11 

him, who was called to the chair of its presidency during 
the three last years of its existence. The important duties 
of that responsible station were assigned to the Rev. Theo- 
dore Clapp — a gentleman long known and distinguished 
among us for his zealgus and energetic devotion to his high 
and sacred calling, and for that rich and glowing eloquence, 
which has long been regarded as one of the brightest mo- 
ral ornaments of our fair city. Even under his govern- 
ment the college seldom numbered more than one hundred 
students, and it was no doubt mainly upon Ms recommen- 
dation, that the location of such an institution was finally 
changed to Jackson, in the parish of East Feliciana, and a 
portion of the funds previously appropriated for its support 
directed into another channel. 

We have seen that the same act of the Legislature which 
abolished the corporation of the College of Orleans, or 
rather transferred it under another name to another part of 
the State, called into existence the "Central and Primary 
Schools" of the city and suburbs. 

Under the administration of the gentlemen composing 
the regency, those institutions were conducted with various 
success until the 16th of February, 1841. That they ut- 
terly failed to answer the expectations and wishes of the 
Legislature and of the friends of education in the city, 
may be easily inferred from the fact, that the average num- 
ber of pupils in the school located in that portion of the city, 
now known as the Second Municipality, during the last se- 
ven or eight years, seldom exceeded seventy-Jive at any gi- 
ven period. That the system was radically defective, none 
will deny ; and the most prominent defects under which it 
labored, arose doubtless from that odious provision of the 
law limiting the number of indigent children to be adjudg- 
ed entitled to gratuitous admittance, and vesting in the pre- 
sident of the schools and the mayor of the city, the right 
to decide upon the claims of the applicants. The power 
so vested was doubtless exercised with justice and a due 
regard to the objects and purposes of the law; yet that in- 
vidious distinctions would be necessarily — nay unavoidably 
drawn, is evident from the very terms of the law itself. 



12 

To execute such a law, exceptions must be made in favor 
of the few over the many — exceptions alike repugnant to 
all our ideas of popular rights, and incompatible with the 
spirit of our institutions. 

On the 16th of February, 1841, tbe Legislature enacted 
the law under which the system now in operation was estab- 
lished. By this enactment the subject of education, as 
hitherto regarded, is stripped of all extraneous and incon- 
gruous matter, and in the compass of three short sections, 
we have presented to the different Municipalities of New 
Orleans — each moving in its own jurisdictional sphere and 
upon its own responsibility — a plan of education, as simple 
in form as it is equitable in its operations. It is incumbent 
upon the Council of each Municipality "to enact such ordi- 
nances as may appear meet and proper for the organization, 
government and discipline of one or more public schools in 
each Municipality, for the gratuitous education of the chil- 
dren residing therein ; to wliich public schools all resident 
white children shall be admitted for the purpose of educa- 
tion." Power is also granted to the Councils to levy taxes 
for the support of the schools, and the Treasurer of the 
State is required to pay annually towards their support, to 
each Municipality, the sum of two dollars sixty-two and a 
half cents for each and every taxable inhabitant in said Mu- 
nicipalities, as paid by law to other parishes; said number 
of taxable inhabitants to be ascertained from the tax roll, 
or by the official return of the assessors, made previous to 
the annual payment. This payment is to be in lieu of any 
other appropriation made by law for the support of schools 
in the parish of Orleans ; provided the aggregate amount 
paid yearly to the tViree municipalities shall not exceed seven 
thousand five hundred dollars. 

The third section of the act provides "that each Council 
shall make a report annually to the Secretary of State, as 
superintendant of public education, of the disposition of 
the school fund, and communicate all other information res- 
pecting public education as contemplated by the act, which 
it may possess." 

With this law before them, the Council of the Second 



13 

Municipality promptly adopted the measures necessary to 
accomplish fully all the beneficent objects of the Legisla- 
ture. An ordinance passed on the 23d of March, (a little 
more than a month after the passage of the act,) provides 
for the establishment of one public school for the gratuitous 
education of children, of either sex, in each of the wards 
of the Municipality. To these schools, all children of pro- 
per age, ofrvhite resident parents , are to be admitted. The 
male and female pupils are taught in separate apart- 
ments, and the grounds appropriated for their amuse- 
ment during the hours of recreation are also separate. 
The only requisites for admission into the schools and for 
continuance therein, are good behavior, regular attendance^ 
and a proper regard to personal cleanliness and neatness. 

The ordinance also provides for the election, by the Coun- 
cil, on the second Tuesday of May in each year, of four 
citizens from each ward, who, with the standing committee 
of the Council on education, are to co!:stitute the board of 
directors of public schools of this Municipality. To this 
board is committed the general superintendance of the 
schools. They are to select the teachers, and remove them 
at pleasure. They are to superintend the conduct of both 
teachers and scholars, direct the system and course of edu- 
cation to be adopted, and prescribe rules for the organi- 
zation and discipline of all the schools, taking care that in 
all there shall be one uniform system. It is also made 
their duty, quarterly, to report to the Council the situation of 
the schools, the number of scholars, their progress, and all 
other information they may deem useful, and calculated to 
promote the cause of public education. They are, once a 
year, to furnish the Council with an estimate in detail of the 
expenses to be incurred for the ensuing year for the sup- 
port of the schools, in order that the Council may appropri- 
ate such sums as may be deemed necessary. It is made the 
duty of the Comptroller of the Municipality, to open an 
account with the public schools, to the credit of which ac- 
count are to be placed the sums received from the State, 
agreeably to the act approved February 16th, 1841. 

I have thus, fellow citizens, gone somewhat into a detail of 



14 

the principal features of the system, for which we this day 
solicit your favorable consideration. If the detail be re- 
garded as unnecessarily minute, I trust that an apology will 
be found in what I felt to be an imperative duty I owed to 
the Council of the Second Municipality, and to the public 
at large. It was due to the able and assiduous gentlemen 
w^ho compose that Council, to present a fair and explicit 
statement of the wise and salutary measures they have de- 
vised for the purpose of carrying out fully the views of the 
Legislature, and of discharging faithfully and satisfactorily 
the momentous trust confided to them by their constituents. 
It was due to those constituents that they should be can- 
didly informed, on this public occasion, of the ways and 
means resorted to by their representatives to secure a per- 
manent and an equitable execution of a system, which more 
than any other that has or can ever elicit their serious at- 
tention, involves their real welfare as a moral and an intel- 
lectual people. 

Having thus disposed of the principles of the system, 
permit me now to glance briefly at the happy results of its 
practical operations. 

The Board of Directors, immediately after their regular 
organization, conceived the design of introducing as far as 
practicable into the liberal and enlightened plan devised by 
the Legislature and the council, the rules and regulations 
of the system of public schools, as it exists in the North- 
ern States of the Union. To effect this, they opened a 
correspondence with the Hon. Horace Mann, Secretary 
of the Board of Education of Massachusetts, a gentleman 
long known and distinguished as the great apostle of uni- 
versal education in the United States. Upon his recom- 
mendation, the board of directors lost no time in securing 
the services of the Hon. J. A. Shaw, of Bridgewater, 
Massachusetts. The energy and ability of this gentleman, 
need no comment from me. The sequel will amply demon- 
strate the indomitable resolution with which he met, and 
the fidelity with which he has discharged the duties of his 
important trust. He arrived in this city about the close of 
1841, and immediately entered upon his duties as general 



15 

superintendent of all the schools conducted under the new 
system within the limits of the Second Municipality. He 
commenced with a school of only twenty -six pupils of both 
sexes. He was resolved, however, to see the system fairly 
tested. His exertions were warmly supported by the di- 
rectors, and at the expiration of one month it was found 
that one hundred and eighty-seven boys and one hundred 
and thirty-two girls, making altogether three hundred and 
nineteen pupils, had been registered. This signal success 
within so short a period, was-regarded as an encouragement 
to greater exeition; and now, after the expiration of one 
year, it is with no small degree of pride and pleasure, that 
the directors and the superintendant can inform the public^ 
that the number of pupils now in regular attendance at the 
various schools of the Municipality amounts to about one 
thousand, and the register contains the names of fifteen 
hundred and fifty, who belong to, and who have participated 
in the advantages afforded by the schools. 

So far as relates to the primary and intermediate schools, 
we may now consider them in successful operation, and ra- 
pidly fulfilling all the purposes of their establishment. But 
there is another part of the system, which has not yet been 
brought directly into view. It is the design of the direc- 
tors at a proper time, to establish a high school for instruc- 
tion in classical studies, and thus afford, by regular grada- 
tion, all the advantages that may be deemed necessary to fit 
our youth for the ordinary occupations of life, or prepare 
them for entrance into colleges and other higher seminaries 
of learning. 

Upon the important and interesting facts I have present- 
ed, I leave you, fellow citizens, to your own comments and 
to your own reflections. I regard their simple recital as 
far the most eloquent appeal that can be made, in vindica- 
tion of the great cause we have espoused. Much, you will 
admit, has already been performed ; but much more, you 
will acknowledge, is yet to be accomplished, when you are 
told that according to the most accurate computation, there 
'are in the Second Municipality alone, about two thousand 
children over and above the number now actually attending 



16 

these and the private schools, of an age sufficiently ad* 
vancedto receive the benefits of education, who are grow- 
ing up in idleness and ignorance. To extend to them also 
the blessings of education, and thus open to them the ave- 
nues to virtue, happiness and future usefulness, is an object 
that will continue to engross the attention of the Council of 
this Municipality. To enable it speedily to accomplish 
this object, it needs and will doubtless receive the cordial 
and zealous co-operation of every sincere friend of humani- 
ty, and of every ardent lover of liis country. 

I have thus far refrained from any alkision to the course 
pursued by the other Municipalities, under the act of the 
Legislature establishing the new system, because my means 
of accurate information have been limited, and because I 
stand here as the organ of the Second Municipality alone. 
In the First Municipality little or nothing, as we are in- 
formed, has been accomplished. In the Third Municipali- 
ty, active and zealous effjrts have been made ; and although 
the number of pupils in the schools falls far short of that 
in the schools of this Municipality, yet from the known fi- 
delity and energy of the gentleman who is perform.ing the 
duties of superintendant, and who has been long favorably 
known among us as an instructor of youth, we have every 
reason to anticipate the most happy results. 

And now let us, fellow citizens, ardently hope that in the 
prosecution of this important work, there may at all times 
be found a concurrence of sentiment and an unity of action 
throughout our great and growing city, and that the fruits 
of the great "seminal principle" here sown and cherished, 
may be realized and enjoyed in every village and every cot- 
tage of Louisiana; — yea, that the whole South, yielding to 
the influence of our own bright example, may soon cause 
the pure and limpid waters of social existence, which shall 
bountifully flow from the system we this day advocate, to 
roll back upon their great Northern source, until our whole 
happy Union, mingling; in one mighty and magnificent 
stream of emigration Westward, shall pour forth a peren- 
nial flood of moral intelligence, with all its concomitant 
blessings, upon our boundless and untrodden wilds ! 



17 

In contemplating the inevitable destinies of our great 
Confederacy, it strikes the mind of the serious observer as 
strange and unaccountable indeed, that one dissenting voice 
should be raised against the efforts now made to carry on 
to a glorious consummEftion the v^eighty enterprize in which 
we are engaged. It cannot be that any sincere disciple of 
Christianity — any devoted friend of social order, can with- 
hold from the cause his zealous co-operation. If ever there 
were a cause in which all classes and denominations might 
consistently and harmoniously unite, it is surely this. — 
Here schisms may be healed ; here sects may lay aside their 
peculiar tenets ; here the followers of Arius and Athana- 
sius, of Luther and Loyola, may throw down the wea- 
pons of malignant warfare, and putting on the burnished 
armor of truth and righteousness, as loved by all and wor- 
shipped by all, join in a common crusade against ignorance 
and error, and open the way for the dissemination of the 
principles of the pure religion of the meek and lowly Je- 
sus^ here, may the champions of contending parties declare 
a political armistice, and mingling in mutual amity on 
neutral ground, deliberate in harmony on the surest means 
of attaining to the highest ends of civil government ; here 
then, like the Elians of old to the beligerent states of 
Greece, we proclaim to them one and all, a long and a 
happy Eucheria, and bid them welcome to the peaceful 
groves of our moral Olympia ! 

On this great and all-engrossing subject, I assume 
the broad position that it is the imperative duty of Louisi- 
ana to educate her own children — to carry the means of 
instruction to the very door of every cottage within her 
borders, and to present the rich and invaluable treasure, 
"without money and without price," to the acceptance of 
€very free white child who may demand it. Let me 
however not be misunderstood. I do not assume this posi- 
tion because I concur in the contracted sentiments of those, 
who advocate the cause of education in the South, because 
forsooth they are alarmed at the probable tendency of a 
Northern education to alienate the affections of our youth 
from the soil of their birth, I hold such sentiments in 



18 

contempt and abhorrence, as hostile in principle to our Fede- 
ral Union, and as wholly unworthy of any liberal and en- 
lightened American citizen. Local attachments and local 
sympathies will doubtless every where be felt ; but the time 
has arrived, fellow-citizens, when every youth in our coun- 
try must be taught as his first lesson, that the soil of our 
vast and glorious Union, is the soil of his birth; — that 
wherever throughout its wide and magnificent domain he 
may wander, — whether he muse amid the thunders of Ni- 
agara — by the peaceful flow of the silent Merrimack — amid 
the awful and sublime solitudes of the cloud-capped Alle- 
ghenies, or on the banks of the turbid Mississippi, he is to 
feel that he still stands on Ms own — his native land ; — the 
land for which his bosom may swell with patriotic pride and 
devotion — the land he is to love in the hour of peace — the 
land he is to defend in the hour of battle. Is there one 
among the thousand sons of old Harvard, of Yale, of Nas- 
sau Hall and other venerable Northern seats of learning, 
who will express his concurrence in the miserable senti- 
ments to which I have alluded ? Is there one, who can re- 
vert to the benefits he enjoyed within the time honored 
walls of his revered Alma Mater, and say, that he there 
imbibed one principle which lessened for a moment his af- 
fection for the spot of his nativity, or his attachment for 
our glorious Union ? 

I say then that it is the duty of Louisiana, to establish a 
system of general education for the benefit of her own 
children, because it is a subject which should above all oth- 
ers elicit the attention of her legislators — because it is the 
noblest object to which her resources can be directed — and 
because, as a corollary to these propositions, the prosperity 
and happiness of each State, and the permanency of the 
Union are secured and strengthened in proportion to the 
liberality with which intelligence is diffused throughout the 
land. The time has arrived we trust, when enlightened le- 
gislation will on all occasions bestow upon the subject that 
favorable consideration which its paramount importance 
demands. The time has arrived when candidates for poli- 
tical distinction will make it the theme of their constant and 



19 

solemn meditation, as presenting to the mind the surest 
means of ultimately promoting the popular weal. The 
time has arrived when they will learn that the fervid elo- 
quence they so often display upon the ordinary topics which 
call forth the virulence of party ^ may indeed entitle them 
to the appellation of politicians ; but that higher and no- 
bler themes must occupy their minds before they can assert 
their claims to the exalted character of Statesmen. The 
time has arrived when they will learn that it is not by fol- 
lowing in the path of the demagogue, who rests his hopes 
of political aggrandizement upon popular ignorance, but by 
moving in the elevated sphere of enlightened patriotism 
alone, that popular favor is to be sought and won. The 
time has arrived when they will aspire to imitate the bright 
example of him, who has for more than a quarter of a cen- 
tury, blazed forth the most brilliant representative of the 
intellect of England, and proved himself the matchless 
champion of all measures tending to promote the two great 
objects, which constitute the gemini in the political zodiac 
of the real statesman — Popular Liberty and Popular 
Education. I allude, of course, to that distinguished pa- 
triot, philanthropist and philosopher. Lord Brougham. 
In 1816, he commenced his career in the cause of educa- 
tional reform as Chairman of the Committee appointed by 
the House of Commons to examine into the abuse of cha- 
rities. In that capacity it became his duty to pry into and 
expose the corruption that prevailed to an alarming extent 
in the Colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, Eaton, Winchester 
and other ancient seats of learning. The consummate 
ability and moral courage with which his duty was perform- 
ed, is known to all who have watched with interest his comet- 
like course. The task was accomplished amid the doleful 
lamentations that arose from the pensioned recipients of 
the bounty that flowed from elemosynary endowments — 
amid the taunts and imprecations of the proud and super- 
stitious worshippers of antiquated forms and usages — amid 
the anathemas of opinionated devotees, who ever stand 
aghast at the cry for innovation, though that cry should al- 
so herald the rise of the beautiful and majestic fabric of 



^0 

Truth on the moss-grown ruins of Error, — devotees^ 
with whom corruption itself is venerable because of its an- 
tiquity. Even a mercenary press was pensioned to crush 
this extraordinary man. Popular indignation, too, thun- 
dered resistance to a falsely supposed invasion of chartered 
immunities, — popular indignation thundered in vain. The 
dauntless champion of Truth paused not in his bold career. 
Sustained by the rectitude of his intentions — animated by 
the courage which has urged on to victory the noble army 
of patriots in all ages, and fired by the zeal which glows in 
the breast of the Apostle of Liberty in the hour of mar- 
tyrdom, he calmly met the terrors of the conflict and glo- 
riously triumphed — 

Justum ac tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
Non vultus instantis tyrranni 
Mente quatit solida, * 

Si fractus illabatur orbis 

Impavidum ferient ruinae. 

Then followed his untiring exertions in the cause of gene- 
ral education. The establishment of Primary Schools, 
has through his agency been rendered an object of absorb- 
ing interest among all classes. At the touch of his mira- 
culous wand, streams of knowledge are soon to gush forth 
at the door of every cottage in the United Kingdom. Fif- 
teen years ago, he proclaimed to the minions of legitimacy 
throughout the world, that " the Schoolmaster was abroad T 
and whether we see him travelling from hamlet to hamlet, 
from cottage to cottage, exciting in the minds of the indi- 
gent and ignorant an ambition for learning ; — whether we 
hear him as Rector of the University of Glasgow, deliver- 
ing with all the enthusiasm of a kindred spirit an elabo- 
rate criticism on the Orations of Demosthenes, — or lectur- 
ing in language adapted to the comprehension of the hum- 
blest intellect upon discoveries in modern science before 
the Mechanics of Manchester, — or thundering before the 
House of Lords to rouse up to a sense of moral responsi- 
bility, the pampered aristocracy of England, — he still ap- 



21 

pears to us the indefatigable advocate of universal edu- 
cation, proclaiming the march of the great army of School- 
masters, while he himself moves proudly in the van, the?io- 
hlest Schoolmaster of them all! Such, Republican Legis- 
lators of Louisiana, is the bright example of a Peer of Eng- 
land. Go and emulate that bright example, — go and do for 
the noble State, whose sovereignty you represent, what he 
has achieved and is still achieving against obstacles, which 
you will never be called upon to surmount, for the rising 
generations of the British Isles, and for the millions over 
whom those Isles are destined to extend their dominion. 

But whatever may be the policy which Louisiana as a 
State may adopt in connection with this great topic, the 
City of New Orleans will, I feel assured, suffer no obstacle 
t-o impede her onward course — to arrest the progress of 
the glowing car which is soon to bear her (o victory on this 
the beautiful stadium we have consecrated to this great mo- 
ral contest. In this contest she is to win the Olympic 
chaplet of sacred olive to adorn her brow in the moment 
of intellectual triumph — a chaplet to add dignity to the hap- 
piness and independence she is yet to enjoy in that hour of 
commercial prosperity which is soon to return. 

Yes, fellow citizens, she is destined soon to witness the 
dawn of a brighter day. The period of her tribulation 
and sorrow will soon have passed. The clouds of adversi- 
ty may throw their dark shadows over her rising hopes; 
the energies of her merchants may be paralyzed, while the 
canvass of commerce folds its wings like a sleeping swan in 
the waters of her noble Pirceus. She may mourn over her 
baffled expectations, while the implements of honest indus- 
try brighten in vain in the fields of wonted promise. But 
soon will the wants of other lands call aloud for the rich 
productions of the soil, which from the great valley of the 
West as from the bountiful horn of Amalthaea, forever 
pours its treasures into her lap. The breezes of prosperi- 
ty will once more ruffle the white plumage on her thousand 
masts upon the tide of her majestic Mississippi, as through 
the main artery of her great System, the life-blood of com- 
mercial existence is borne with healthful activity from a 



22 

heart forever throbbing with generous sympathy and noble 
emulation. Like the Antaeus of ancient fable — the gigan- 
tic offspring of the Ocean and the Land — she will rise with 
renewed and redoubled vigor under the Herculean pressure 
of adversity which is bearing her to earth. 

It is for us then, fellow citizens, to see that her moral 
power keeps pace with her commercial prosperity. It is 
for us, while the world stands tributary to her physical ne- 
cessities, to keep alive with vestal vigilance a burning zeal 
for the cultivation of those pursuits, which alone can exalt 
the mind and add lustre to the virtues which adorn our so- 
cial existence. — Such is our duty as citizens of this our 
Southern Emporium, the extent of whose mighty agency 
and influence in fulfilling the destinies of our great Repub- 
lic, neither you nor I can foretell. Such, more especially, is 
our duty as citizens of that Republic; on whose rise and 
progress, as the brightest spectacle of moral sublimity it 
has ever been called to witness — the civilized world has 
fixed its gaze of admiration and of awe. It is only by a 
faithful discharge of this obligation that the devoted chil- 
dren of that Republic may hope to behold her fulfil the 
glowing predictions of the prophets of freedom, by becom- 
ing the theatre for the performance o( the ffth 'grand act' 
in the drama of human affairs, and proving herself " the 
noblest oflfspring of time." It is only by a faithful dis- 
charge of this obligation, that they may hope to see her 
realize that ''august conception" of a late English poet,* 
by "presenting to the world a hundred millions of freemen, 
stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, living under the 
laws of Alfred, and speaking the language of Shakspeare 
and Milton." That this august conception will he reali- 
zed at no very distant day, is no longer to be regarded in 
the light of a moral or political problem ; — if it be, it is a 
problem that will be solved to the wonder and admiration 
of the world, even while that world is deliberating on the 
process by which the solution is to be effected. In the lof- 
ty strains of one whose name has been associated with this 

^■^Golcricle:c. 



2i 

brilliant and happy consummation of our country's hopes 
of future grandeur, " Methinks I see in my mind a noble 
and puissant nation, rousing herself like a strong man after 
sleep, and shaking her invincible locks. Methinks I see 
her as an eagle nursing her mighty youth and kindling her 
undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam — purging and un- 
sealing her long abused sight at the fountain itself of hea- 
venly radiance."* 

Let us then fellow citizens, with the language of Mil- 
ton, send to the remotest bounds of this vast Continent, 
the principles of Liberty that glowed in his undaunted soul. 
And while on this great day we renew to each other the 
pledge of fidelity to the common cause, let us confidently 
trust that America, with the name and virtues of her 
Washington, engraven forever on her grateful memory, 
may hold on her high and radiant career, and prove a burn- 
ing and a shining light to the nations wandering in the 
gloom of moral and political despotism ; — that she may in 
the plenitude of the power and glory which await her, be- 
come the Pythoness on the tripod of the Delphos of the 
World, to deliver the eternal oracles of civil and religious 
Liberty to all mankind. 



Milton's Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing. 



\/L 



